Laura Nyro

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Laura Nyro

Laura Nyro (born Laura Nigro) (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, lyricist

Lyricist

A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist....
, singer and pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an musical ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
. Her style was a distinctive hybrid of Brill Building

Brill Building

The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway in New York City, just north of Times Square. The Brill Building was intended as a financial office space for brokers and bankers....
-style New York pop, mixed with elements of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
, gospel

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music first created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s....
, show tunes and rock

Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
.

She was best known, and had the most commercial success, as a composer and lyricist rather than as a performer. Between 1968 and 1970 a number of other singers had significant hits with her songs: the Fifth Dimension

Fifth dimension

In physics and mathematics, a tuple of N real numbers can be understood to represent a coordinate system in an N-dimensional Euclidean space. When N=5, the space consisting of all locations with a nonzero fifth number is called the fifth dimension....
with "Blowing Away", "Wedding Bell Blues

Wedding Bell Blues

"Wedding Bell Blues" is a song written and recorded by Laura Nyro in 1966 that became a number one hit for The Fifth Dimension in 1969 and subsequently a popular phrase in American culture....
", "Stoned Soul Picnic

Stoned Soul Picnic (song)

"Stoned Soul Picnic" was a popular song from the year 1968 in music. The most known version of the song was recorded by The Fifth Dimension, and was the first single released from their Stoned Soul Picnic , and was the most successful single from that album, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs....
", "Sweet Blindness", "Save The Country" and "Black Patch"; Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears is an United States music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles....
and Peter, Paul & Mary with "And When I Die"; Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night is an United States rock band, best known for their music from 1968?1975. They were still making live appearances and recordings in 2008....
with "Eli's Coming"; and Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand is an United states singer and film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, political activist, film producer and film director....
with "Stoney End", "Time and Love", and "Hands off the Man (Flim Flam Man)".

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Quotations

EmilyAnd her love to beCarved in a heartOn a berry treeBut it's only a little farewell lovespellTime to design a woman.

"Emily"

He got his mean streak from the gutterGot his kindness from God.

"Blackpatch"

I saw a man take a needleful of hard drugAnd die slow.

"Been On A Train"

I was raised on the good book JesusTill I read between the linesNow I don't believe I ever wanna see the morning.

"Stoney End"

I'm not scared of dying And I, don't really care If it' s peace you find in dyingWell then, let the time be near.

"And When I Die"

If you love me trueAnd if you love me trueI'll spend my life with youAnd Timer You're a jigsaw, Timer.

"Timer"

Encyclopedia

Laura Nyro (born Laura Nigro) (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American

United States

Composer

Lyricist

A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist....
, singer and pianist

Pianist

Brill Building

Jazz

Gospel music

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music first created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s....
, show tunes and rock

Rock music

Fifth dimension

Wedding Bell Blues

Stoned Soul Picnic (song)

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Three Dog Night

Barbra Streisand

Carole King

Carole King is an United States singer, songwriter, and pianist. She was most active as a singer during the first half of the 1970s, though she was a successful songwriter for considerably longer both before and after this period....
and Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin is an United States lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriter partner and first wife, Carole King....
's "Up on the Roof

Up on the Roof (song)

"Up on the Roof" is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and recorded in 1962 by The Drifters. Released at the tail end of that year, the song became a big hit, reaching number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs....
."

Background

Nyro was born in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Gilda Mirsky Nigro, a bookkeeper, and Louis Nigro, a piano tuner and jazz trumpeter. Laura has a brother, Jan Nigro. As a child, she taught herself piano, read poetry, and listened to her mother's records by Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price

Mary Violet Leontyne Price in Laurel, Mississippi in the United States is one of America's most beloved and widely recorded operatic sopranos....
, Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter.Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing....
and classical composers such as Ravel and Debussy. She composed her first songs at the age of eight. With her family, she spent summers in the Catskill Mountains

Catskill Mountains

The Catskill Mountains , a natural area in New York northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, New York, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief....
where her father played the trumpet at resorts. She credited the Sunday school at the New York Society for Ethical Culture with providing the basis of her education; she also attended Manhattan's High School of Music and Art.

While in high school, she sang with a group of friends in subway stations and on street corners. She said :- "I would go out singing, as a teenager, to a party or out on the street, because there were harmony groups there, and that was one of the joys of my youth". Among her favourite musicians were John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an United States jazz saxophonist and composer.Starting in bebop and hard bop, Coltrane later pioneered free jazz. He influenced generations of other musicians, and remains one of the most significant tenor saxophonists in jazz history....
, Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was a Grammy Award-nominated American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist....
, Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an United States folk singer, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene" that topped the charts f...
, Curtis Mayfield, Van Morrison

Van Morrison

George Ivan Morrison Order of the British Empire is a Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, author, poet and multi-instrumentalist, who has been a professional musician since the late 1950s....
, and girl groups such as Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups in the Motown roster during the period 1963-1967. In contrast to Motown girl groups such as The Supremes and The Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas were known for a harder, R&B sound, typified in " Heat Wave," "Nowhere to Run," "Jimmy Mack" and, their signature song, "Dancing...
and the Shirelles

The Shirelles

The Shirelles were an United States girl group in the early 1960s, and the first to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. The members of the quartet were Shirley Owens , Doris Coley , Beverly Lee, and Addie 'Micki' Harris....
. She also commented : "I was always interested in the social consciousness of certain songs. My mother and grandfather were progressive thinkers, so I felt at home in the peace movement and the women's movement, and that has influenced my music".

Early career

Her father’s work brought him into contact with record company executive Artie Mogull (1927-2004), who auditioned Laura in 1966 and became her first manager. As a teenager she experimented with using different names, and Nyro (which she pronounced "Nero") was the one she was using at the time. She sold her song, "And When I Die", to Peter, Paul and Mary

Peter, Paul and Mary

Peter, Paul and Mary are a musical group from the United States who were one of the most successful folk song groups of the 1960s. The trio is composed of Peter Yarrow, Noel Stookey and Mary Travers ....
for $5,000, and made her first extended professional appearance, at age 18, singing at the "hungry i

Hungry i

The hungry i was a legendary San Francisco nightclub operated in the mid-1950s and early 1960s by Enrico Banducci at 599 Jackson Street in the North Beach, San Francisco, California district....
" coffeehouse in San Francisco. Mogull negotiated her a recording contract, and she recorded her debut album, More Than a New Discovery
More Than a New Discovery

More Than A New Discovery is the debut album by Bronx-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro. It was recorded during 1966 and released at the beginning of the following year on the Folkways imprint of the Verve label ...
, for the Verve Folkways

Verve Records

Verve Records is an United States Jazz record label now owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels: Norgran Records and Clef Records and material which had been licensed to Mercury Records previously....
label. The album provided material for other artists, notably the Fifth Dimension.

In 1967, Nyro made only her second major live appearance, at the Monterey Pop Festival

Monterey Pop Festival

The Monterey International Pop Music Festival was a three-day concert event held June 16 to June 18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California....
. Although some accounts described her performance as a fiasco that culminated in her being booed off the stage, recordings later made public contradict this view.

Soon afterwards, David Geffen

David Geffen

David Geffen is an United States record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropy. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970 , and Geffen Records in 1980, along with his later role as one of the three founders of Dreamworks SKG in 1994....
approached Mogull about taking over as her agent. Nyro successfully sued to void her management and recording contracts on the grounds that she had entered into them while still a minor. Geffen became her manager, and the two established a publishing company, Tuna Fish Music, under which the proceeds from her future compositions would be divided equally between them. Geffen also arranged Nyro’s new recording contract with Clive Davis

Clive Davis

Clive Jay Davis is an American record producer, executive and a leading music executive. He has won multiple Grammy awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
at Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
, and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions. Around this time Nyro considered becoming lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Al Kooper

Al Kooper is an United States songwriter, record producer and musician, probably best known for organizing the group Blood, Sweat & Tears, though he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity....
, but was dissuaded by Geffen. However, BS&T would go on to have a hit with a cover of her song "And When I Die."

The new contract allowed Nyro more artistic freedom and control. In 1968 Columbia Records released her second album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession

Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is a music album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro, released in 1968, ....
. This received high critical praise for the depth and sophistication of the performance and arrangements, merging pop structure with inspired imagery, rich vocals and avant-garde jazz, and is widely considered to be one of her best works. It was followed in 1969 by New York Tendaberry
New York Tendaberry

New York Tendaberry is a music album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.It was released in the autumn of 1969 on the Columbia Records label, some 18 months after its predecessor, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. It is generally considered by rock critics and Laura Nyro aficianados to be her greatest musica...
, another highly acclaimed work which cemented Nyro’s artistic credibility. The record's "Time and Love" and "Save the Country" emerged as two of her most well-regarded and popular songs.

Her fourth album, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat
Christmas and the Beads of Sweat

Christmas and the Beads of Sweat is the fourth LP by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.The album was released on the Columbia Records label in November 1970 after Nyro had recorded it in the early summer with producers Felix Cavaliere and Arif Mardin....
, was issued at the end of 1970. The set contained such well-known Nyro diamonds as "Upstairs By a Chinese Lamp" and "When I Was a Freeport". It featured Muscle Shoals musicians including Duane Allman

Duane Allman

Howard Duane Allman was an United States lead guitarist, co-founder of the Southern rock group the Allman Brothers Band, and respected session musician....
. The following year’s Gonna Take a Miracle
Gonna Take a Miracle

Gonna Take a Miracle is the fifth music album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro. Nyro was backed up on the album by the vocal trio Labelle....
was an album of her favourite "teenage heartbeat songs", recorded with vocal group Labelle

Labelle

Labelle is an American R&B/Soul music group, who melded disco with funk and glam rock. The group was led by Patti LaBelle, who later had a solo career....
(Patti Labelle

Patti LaBelle

Patricia Louise Holte , best known by her stage name of Patti LaBelle, is an American rhythm and blues and soul music singer-songwriter and actor....
, Nona Hendryx

Nona Hendryx

Nona Hendryx is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actor. Many articles mistakenly give her first name as Wynona, which her manager, Vicki Wickham, has verified to be incorrect....
and Sarah Dash

Sarah Dash

Sarah Dash is a singer and actress. Her first notable appearance on the music scene was as a member of Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles....
) and the production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. With the exception of her attribution of the song "Désiree

Desiree

Desiree may referPeople* Des'ree , a British pop/soul vocalist throughout the 1990s* D?sir?e Clary , Queen of Sweden * Desire? Cousteau , an American porn star...
" (originally "Deserie" by The Charts

The Charts

The Charts were an American doo-wop group of the 1950s, most famous for their recording "Deserie".The group formed as The Thrilltones in Harlem, New York in 1956, and comprised teenagers Joe Grier , Stephen Brown , Glenmore Jackson , Leroy Binns , and Ross Buford ....
), this was Nyro's sole album of wholly non-original material, featuring such songs as "Jimmy Mack

Jimmy Mack

"Jimmy Mack" is a 1967 Pop music/Soul music single recorded by Martha and the Vandellas for Motown Records' Gordy imprint. Written and produced by Motown's main creative team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, "Jimmy Mack" was the final Top 10 hit for the Vandellas in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 and at numb...
", "Nowhere to Run

Nowhere to Run

"Nowhere to Run" is a 1965 Pop music single b/w "Motoring" by Martha & the Vandellas for the Gordy label and is one of the group's signature songs....
", and "Spanish Harlem

Spanish Harlem (song)

"Spanish Harlem" is a song released by Ben E. King in 1961 on Atco Records, written by Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector. The song was King's first hit away from The Drifters, a group he had led for several years....
".

By this time, Nyro was married, to carpenter David Bianchini in 1971. She was also reportedly uncomfortable with attempts to market her as a celebrity, and she announced her retirement from the music business at the age of 24.

In 1973, her Verve

Verve Records

Verve Records is an United States Jazz record label now owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels: Norgran Records and Clef Records and material which had been licensed to Mercury Records previously....
debut album was acquired and reissued by Columbia as The First Songs.

Later career

By 1976, her marriage had ended, and she returned with an album of new material, Smile
Smile (Laura Nyro album)

Smile is the sixth music album by New York singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.The album was released in early 1976 following a four-year hiatus from the music industry during which time Nyro both married and divorced and lived away from the spotlight....
. She then embarked on a four-month tour with a full band, which resulted in the 1977 live album Season of Lights
Season of Lights

Season of Lights is the first live album by New York singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.Columbia Records issued the album in the summer of 1977, taking the songs from various locations on Nyro's 1976 tour in support of her most recent studio album, Smile ....
. In the early 1980s, Laura began living with painter, Maria Desiderio (d. 1999), a relationship which lasted 17 years, the rest of Laura's life.

After the 1978 album Nested
Nested

Nested is the seventh studio album by Bronx-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro, released in 1978 by Columbia Records.Following on from her extensive tour to promote 1976's Smile , which resulted in the 1977 live album Season of Lights, Nyro retreated to her new home in Danbury, Connecticut, Connecticut, where she li...
, recorded when she was pregnant with her only child, she again took a break from recording, this time until 1984's Mother's Spiritual
Mother's Spiritual

Mother's Spiritual is the eighth studio album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro and her ninth original album in total, including the 1977 live album Season of Lights....
. She began touring with a band in 1988, her first concert appearances in ten years. The tour was dedicated to the animal rights movement. The shows led to her 1989 release, Laura: Live at the Bottom Line
Laura: Live at the Bottom Line

Laura: Live at the Bottom Line is the second live album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro and her tenth original album in total, including the 1977 live album Season of Lights....
, which included six new compositions.

Her final album of predominantly original material was Walk the Dog and Light the Light
Walk the Dog and Light the Light

Walk the Dog and Light the Light is the ninth studio album by Bronx-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro. It was released in the late summer of 1993, more than nine years after its predecessor, Mother's Spiritual....
(1993), her last album for Columbia, which was co-produced by Gary Katz

Gary Katz

Gary Katz is an American record producer, most famous for his work in that capacity on every Steely Dan album recorded during the first run of their career, from Can't Buy A Thrill in 1972 to Gaucho in 1980, as well as the Donald Fagen solo album, The Nightfly in 1982....
, best known for his work with Steely Dan

Steely Dan

Steely Dan is an United States jazz-Rock music band centered on core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. The band reached a peak of popularity in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock and roll, funk, rhythm and blues, and Pop music....
. This sparked reappraisal of her place in popular music, and new commercial offers began to appear. She reportedly turned down some lucrative film-composing offers, although she did contribute a rare protest song to the Academy Award winning documentary "Broken Rainbow", about the unjust relocation of the Navajo people

Navajo people

The Navajo or Din? of the Southwestern United States are the largest Native Americans in the United States tribe of North America....
.

Also according to sources, both The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show

The Tonight Show is a long-running American late-night talk show and variety show airing on NBC whose The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has been hosted by Jay Leno since 1992....
and The Late Show with David Letterman staff heavily pursued Nyro for a TV appearance during this period, yet she turned them down as well, citing her discomfort with appearing on television (she only made a handful of early TV appearances and one fleeting moment on VH-1 performing the title song from “Broken Rainbow” on Earth Day in 1990). She never released an official video, although there was talk of filming some Bottom Line
Bottom Line

The Bottom Line was an intimate music venue in New York City's Greenwich Village, at 15 West Fourth Street between Broadway and Washington Square Park....
appearances in the 1990s.

In 1996 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is a malignant tumor arising from an ovary. Although ovarian cancer is known to occur in many species, the majority of the medical literature and the focus of this article is on ovarian cancer in humans....
. After the diagnosis, Columbia Records prepared a double-disc CD retrospective of material from her years at the label. The company involved Nyro herself, who selected the tracks and approved the final project. She lived to see the release of Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro
Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro

Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro is the second retrospective album by Bronx-born musician Laura Nyro and the most comprehensive overview of her work to date....
(1997), and was reportedly pleased with the outcome.

Nyro died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut

Danbury, Connecticut

Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It has an estimated population of 78,736. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County & is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....
on April 8, 1997, at the age of 49. The same disease had claimed the life of her mother at the same age.

Posthumous releases and legacy

Posthumous releases include Angel In The Dark (2001), which include her final studio recordings made in 1994 and 1995, and The Loom’s Desire, a set of live recordings with solo piano and harmony singers from The Bottom Line Christmas shows of 1993 and 1994.

A tribute album, Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro
Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro

Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro is a 1997 tribute album to Laura Nyro, recorded shortly after the singer-songwriter's death of ovarian cancer....
, on which Nyro's compositions were performed by fourteen women singers and groups, including Phoebe Snow, Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her highly literate lyrics and eclectic folk music-inspired music.Record companies saw little prospect of commercial success in the beginning; Vega's demo tape was rejected by every major record company?twice by A&M....
, Roseanne Cash, Sweet Honey in the Rock

Sweet Honey in the Rock

Sweet Honey in the Rock is an internationally renowned all-women band, African American a cappella ensemble that has risen to fame for the ingenuity and talent of the women who work to blend their voices together in song....
, Lisa Germano

Lisa Germano

Lisa Germano is an United States Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has released seven albums featuring her often-hushed vocal style, confessional lyrics, and distinctive violin....
and Jane Siberry was issued in 1997 after her death. Siberry's contribution to the project was a medley of Nyro songs called "When I Think Of Laura Nyro", which would subsequently appear on her own compilation City.

Nyro's influence on popular musicians has also been acknowledged by such artists as Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, Order of Canada is a Canada musician, songwriter, and Painting.Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto....
, Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones is a two-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer from the United States. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including Rhythm and blues, blues, pop music, soul music, and jazz standard ....
, Steely Dan

Steely Dan

Todd Rundgren

Todd Harry Rundgren , is an United States musician, singer-songwriter and record producer....
, and Elton John

Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John Order of the British Empire is an England singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially during the 1970s....
. Rundgren stated that, once he heard her, he "stopped writing songs like The Who and started writing songs like Laura". His song about her, "Baby, Let's Swing" on his first solo album Runt
Runt (album)

Runt is the self-titled debut of the band Runt, first released in 1970 on the Ampex Records label.Many regard the album as Todd Rundgren's debut solo album, as all later reissues credit the album to Todd Rundgren, rather than to Runt....
, includes the lyrics "Laura...I saw you open in L. A." and "Now I love to shuffle / ever since I heard you sing".

Bruce Arnold of Orpheus (band)
Orpheus (band)

Orpheus was a Worcester-based rock band that enjoyed brief popularity in the 1960?s. Original members included guitarist/vocalists Bruce Arnold and Jack McKennes, bass guitarist Eric "The Snake" Gulliksen, and drummer Harry Sandler....
was a huge fan, and vice-versa. One day at her home Laura showed drummer Bernard Purdie
Bernard Purdie

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie is an American drummer and session musician from Elkton, Maryland who has worked with various well-known soul music, rock music, pop music, and jazz musicians....
her collection of Orpheus albums that included an unopened copy of each for posterity.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis is an United States singer, musician, and actress.Lewis is a member and primary vocalist of the indie rock band Rilo Kiley, and has also released two solo albums....
of Rilo Kiley
Rilo Kiley

Rilo Kiley is a Los Angeles-based indie rock band. The band members are Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder, and Jason Boesel....
, when promoting her 2006 solo album Rabbit Fur Coat
Rabbit Fur Coat

Rabbit Fur Coat is an album by Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, featuring The Watson Twins. It was released in the United States on January 24, 2006 by Team Love....
repeatedly cited Nyro's 1971 album Gonna Take a Miracle
Gonna Take a Miracle

Gonna Take a Miracle is the fifth music album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro. Nyro was backed up on the album by the vocal trio Labelle....
as a big influence on her music.
Elton John
Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John Order of the British Empire is an England singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially during the 1970s....
and Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello is an England musician and singer-songwriter. Costello came to prominence as an early participant in London's Pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s....
discussed Laura's significant influence on both of them during the premiere episode of Costello's interview show Spectacle on the Sundance channel.
Bob Dylan reportedly startled a young Laura Nyro when he approached her at a party and declared "I love your chords!"
Diane Paulus
Diane Paulus

Diane Paulus is a director of theater and opera. She was born in New York, NY in 1966. She attended the Brearley School where she was a top student She received her BA from Harvard University where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and she subsequently received a MFA from Columbia....
and Bruce Buschel
Bruce Buschel

Biography Bruce Buschel worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia magazine and The Drummer before writing for The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, Premiere, and Sport magazine....
co-created Eli's Comin, a musical revue of the songs of Laura Nyro. Anika Noni Rose
Anika Noni Rose

Anika Noni Rose is a Tony Award-winning American singer and actress....
starred.
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper is an American rock music singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, and boa constrictors, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, heavy metal music, and garage rock to create a theatrical brand of rock musi...
has mentioned that Nyro is one of his favorite songwriters on his syndicated radio show.
Her songs were also recorded by artists as diverse as Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae

Carmen Mercedes McRae was an United States jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable....
, Junior Walker, Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins

Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins was an influential American guitarist and record producer.His picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally....
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an United States singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers"....
, and Swing Out Sister
Swing Out Sister

Swing Out Sister is a British "sophisti-pop" group best known worldwide for their 1986 song "Breakout ". Other hits include "Twilight World", "Waiting Game" and a remake of "Am I the Same Girl?" Though their album sales in the U.S....
.
The Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey Jr. was an African-American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York Theater. Ailey is largely credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance....
Dance Company and the Canadian Ballet have also included her music in their performances.
On her 2006 album Build a Bridge, the operatic/Broadway soprano Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald

Audra Ann McDonald is an United States four-time Tony Award-winning actress and singer. She currently stars in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr....
included covers of Laura Nyro's songs "To a Child" and "Tom Cat Goodbye."
Nyro's "Save the Country" was sampled on Kanye West
Kanye West

Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, record producer and singer. He released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, and his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008....
's song "The Glory," on his 2007 album Graduation
Graduation (album)

Graduation is the third studio album by rapper Kanye West, released on September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records. The title of the album follows the college theme of Kanye West's previous two studio albums, The College Dropout and Late Registration....
.
On October 2, 2007, three time Tony nominee Judy Kuhn
Judy Kuhn

Judy Kuhn is an United States singer and actress. Born inNew York City Kuhn's training as a classical soprano was at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, from which she graduated in 1981....
released her new album Serious Playground: The Songs of Laura Nyro. The album, which debuted as a concert to a sold out house at Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series in January 2007, includes several of Nyro's biggest hits ("Stoned Soul Picnic", "Stoney End") as well as some of her lesser known gems.

Biographies and analysis
A biography of Nyro, Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro, written by Michele Kort, was published in 2002 by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press.

Laura Nyro's music was the subject of an in-depth 2003 study by music theorist Ari Lauren at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood of Chicago. Although an older university by the same name existed prior to its founding, the modern University of Chicago credits its founding to the oil magnate John D....
. By analyzing the rhythmic and chordal progressions of Nyro's early work, Lauren elucidated the similarities between Nyro's songs and the compositions of the Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City-centered History of music publishings and songwriters who dominated the American popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century....
era, arguing that Laura Nyro deserves a place within the pantheon of the Great American Songbook
Great American Songbook

Great American Songbook is a term referring to the interrelated music of Broadway theatre musical theater, the Hollywood musical, and Tin Pan Alley, in a period that begins roughly in the 1920s and tapers off around 1960 with the emerging dominance of rock and roll....
, alongside such composers as George Gershwin
George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin....
, Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen was an United States Jewish composer of popular music.Having written over 400 songs, a number of which have become known the world over, Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook....
, and Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of popular music. He wrote around 700 songs, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance ", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight", and "Who? ", a 6-week #1 hit for George Olsen & his Orchestra in 1925....
.

Nyro's life and music were celebrated in a 2005 BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio radio station and the List of most-listened-to radio programs in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult contemporary music or Album-orientated rock, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres....
documentary, Shooting Star – Laura Nyro Remembered, which was narrated by her friend Bette Midler
Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singing, actress and comedienne, also known as The Divine Miss M. During her career, she has won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards....
and included contributions from her one-time manager David Geffen
David Geffen

David Geffen is an United States record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropy. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970 , and Geffen Records in 1980, along with his later role as one of the three founders of Dreamworks SKG in 1994....
, co-producers Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin

Arif Mardin was a Turkey-United States music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock music, soul music, disco, and country music....
and Gary Katz
Gary Katz

Gary Katz is an American record producer, most famous for his work in that capacity on every Steely Dan album recorded during the first run of their career, from Can't Buy A Thrill in 1972 to Gaucho in 1980, as well as the Donald Fagen solo album, The Nightfly in 1982....
, and performers Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her highly literate lyrics and eclectic folk music-inspired music.Record companies saw little prospect of commercial success in the beginning; Vega's demo tape was rejected by every major record company?twice by A&M....
and Janis Ian
Janis Ian

Janis Ian is a Grammy Award-winning United States songwriter, singer, multi-instrumental musician, columnist, and science fiction science fiction fandom-turned-author....
. It was rebroadcast on April 4, 2006.

Janis Ian, who attended the High School of Music and Art in New York at the same time as Nyro, discussed her friendship with Nyro during the late 1960s in her autobiography, Society's Child. Ian described her as looking like a "Morticia Addams
Morticia Addams

Morticia A. Addams is the fictional matriarch of "The Addams Family", created by cartoonist Charles Addams.Morticia is the wife of Gomez Addams and Mother to Wednesday Addams and Pugsley Addams....
" caricature with her long, dark hair, and called her a "brilliant songwriter" but "oddly inarticulate" in terms of musical terminology. Ian was a fan of Nyro's work with producer Charlie Calello
Charlie Calello

Charlie Calello is an United States, singer, composer, Conducting and arranger, born in Newark, New JerseyCalello attended Newark Arts High School....
and chose him as the producer of her 1969 album Who Really Cares on the basis of his work with Nyro.

Comedian, writer, and singer Sandra Bernhard
Sandra Bernhard

Sandra Bernhard is an American comedian, singer, actress and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy in which she often bitterly critiques celebrity culture and political figures....
has spoken extensively of Laura Nyro as an ongoing inspiration. She dedicated a song to her on Excuses for Bad Behavior (Part One). She also sang Nyro's "I Never Meant to Hurt You" in her film Without You I'm Nothing
Without You I'm Nothing (film)

Without You I'm Nothing is a 1990 film starring and written by comedian and singer Sandra Bernhard, based on material from her award-winning one-woman show of the same name....
. In some songs, Bernhard sounds very much like Nyro vocally.

Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones is a two-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer from the United States. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including Rhythm and blues, blues, pop music, soul music, and jazz standard ....
' critically acclaimed album Pirates
Pirates (album)

Pirates is the second album by Chicago-born singer, songwriter, and musician Rickie Lee Jones, released in July 1981, two years after her eponymous debut Rickie Lee Jones . The album is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician Tom Waits after the success of her debut album....
is in some ways a tribute to Nyro. Songs like "We Belong Together" and "Living It Up" are reminiscent of early Laura Nyro songs.

Nyro had a long term relationship with singer/songwriter Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne

Clyde Jackson Browne is an American rock music singer-songwriter and musician. His introspective lyrics made him the poster boy of the Southern California confessional singer-songwriter movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s....
. The song "That Girl Could Sing", found on Browne's number one album Hold Out
Hold Out

Hold Out is the sixth album by United States singer/songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1980 . Although critically the album has not been as well received as other Browne recordings, it remains his only album to date to reach #1 in the Billboard charts....
, is about Laura Nyro.

Discography
Studio

1967 - More Than a New Discovery
More Than a New Discovery

More Than A New Discovery is the debut album by Bronx-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro. It was recorded during 1966 and released at the beginning of the following year on the Folkways imprint of the Verve label ...
(later reissued as Laura Nyro, 1969, and as The First Songs, 1973)

1968 - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession

Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is a music album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro, released in 1968, ....
reissued and remastered with bonus tracks, 2002, Columbia
1969 - New York Tendaberry
New York Tendaberry

New York Tendaberry is a music album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.It was released in the autumn of 1969 on the Columbia Records label, some 18 months after its predecessor, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. It is generally considered by rock critics and Laura Nyro aficianados to be her greatest musica...
reissued and remastered with bonus tracks, 2002, Columbia
1970 - Christmas and the Beads of Sweat
Christmas and the Beads of Sweat

Christmas and the Beads of Sweat is the fourth LP by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.The album was released on the Columbia Records label in November 1970 after Nyro had recorded it in the early summer with producers Felix Cavaliere and Arif Mardin....
March 2008-BMG Sony (US division)
1971 - Gonna Take a Miracle
Gonna Take a Miracle

Gonna Take a Miracle is the fifth music album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro. Nyro was backed up on the album by the vocal trio Labelle....
(with Labelle
Labelle

Labelle is an American R&B/Soul music group, who melded disco with funk and glam rock. The group was led by Patti LaBelle, who later had a solo career....
) reissued and remastered with bonus tracks, 2002, Columbia
1976 - Smile
Smile (Laura Nyro album)

Smile is the sixth music album by New York singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.The album was released in early 1976 following a four-year hiatus from the music industry during which time Nyro both married and divorced and lived away from the spotlight....
1978 - Nested
Nested

Nested is the seventh studio album by Bronx-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro, released in 1978 by Columbia Records.Following on from her extensive tour to promote 1976's Smile , which resulted in the 1977 live album Season of Lights, Nyro retreated to her new home in Danbury, Connecticut, Connecticut, where she li...
1984 - Mother's Spiritual
Mother's Spiritual

Mother's Spiritual is the eighth studio album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro and her ninth original album in total, including the 1977 live album Season of Lights....
1993 - Walk the Dog and Light the Light
Walk the Dog and Light the Light

Walk the Dog and Light the Light is the ninth studio album by Bronx-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro. It was released in the late summer of 1993, more than nine years after its predecessor, Mother's Spiritual....
2001 - Angel in the Dark (posthumous album recorded 1994-1995)

Live
1977 - Season of Lights
Season of Lights

Season of Lights is the first live album by New York singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro.Columbia Records issued the album in the summer of 1977, taking the songs from various locations on Nyro's 1976 tour in support of her most recent studio album, Smile ....
1989 - Laura: Live at the Bottom Line
Laura: Live at the Bottom Line

Laura: Live at the Bottom Line is the second live album by New York-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro and her tenth original album in total, including the 1977 live album Season of Lights....
2000 - Live at Mountain Stage
Live at Mountain Stage

Live from Mountain Stage was the first posthumous album release by Bronx-born musician Laura Nyro and her third officially-released live album....
(recorded 1990)
2002 - Live: The Loom's Desire (recorded 1993-1994)
2003 - Live in Japan (recorded 1994)
2004 - Spread Your Wings and Fly: Live at the Fillmore East May 30, 1971

Compilation
????- Laura Nyro-Collections [Sony Europe]
1972 - Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro

Laura Nyro was an United States composer, lyricist, singer and pianist. Her style was a distinctive hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, mixed with elements of jazz, gospel music, rhythm and blues, show tunes and rock music....
sings her Greatest Hits [Japan only]
1980 - Laura Nyro: Impressions
1997 - Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro
Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro

Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro is the second retrospective album by Bronx-born musician Laura Nyro and the most comprehensive overview of her work to date....
1999 - Premium Best Collection-Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro

Laura Nyro was an United States composer, lyricist, singer and pianist. Her style was a distinctive hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, mixed with elements of jazz, gospel music, rhythm and blues, show tunes and rock music....
[Japan only]
2000 - Time and Love: The Essential Masters
Time and Love: The Essential Masters

Time and Love: The Essential Masters is the third retrospective album of New York singer-songwriter Laura Nyro's work to be released, and the first since her death in April 1997....

Compositions
"Blowing Away", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", "Save The Country" and "Black Patch", Fifth Dimension; Blood, Sweat & Tears with "And When I Die"; Three Dog Night with "Eli's Coming"; and Barbra Streisand with "Stoney End." Ironically, Nyro's own best-selling single was a cover of Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "Up on the Roof.

Samples

Nyro's "Save The Country" was sampled on Kanye West
Kanye West

Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, record producer and singer. He released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, and his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008....
's song "The Glory," on his 2007 album Graduation
Graduation (album)

Graduation is the third studio album by rapper Kanye West, released on September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records. The title of the album follows the college theme of Kanye West's previous two studio albums, The College Dropout and Late Registration....
.".

See also

External links